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ULM Baseball On The Upswing After Postseason Run

ULM Baseball On The Upswing After Postseason Run

Baseball May 31
By Paul Letlow, ULMWarhawks.com Online Columnist
 
MONROE, La. – ULM baseball coach Michael Federico was involved in getting his own kids off to practice this week as he fielded a call to recap his second season guiding the Warhawks. 

Fittingly, Federico used a parental analogy to describe the state of the program's ongoing rebuilding project.  
        
"The program continues to make baby steps," said Federico, who is 50-62 at ULM. "Last year, I felt like we were crawling. This year, we went to the baby steps. Hopefully next year, we can start moving a little bit quicker. Get into a brisk walk, and hopefully by the end of next year, we'll be running."        

Maybe they wobbled at times, but there's no question ULM baseball is showing improvement and generating excitement again. In 2018, the Warhawks made an 11-game improvement under Federico at 23-31. 

In 2019, the Warhawks (27-31) advanced to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for the first time since 2014 and were the talk of the league as they won three games to advance to the semifinals with wins over South Alabama (12-7), top-seeded Texas State (13-4) and UT Arlington (18-5). 

The season ended with two losses to eventual champion and host team Coastal Carolina, but the taste of postseason success after a long drought was inspiring.

"We made it and that was the biggest goal," Federico said.

Federico said he was initially disappointed ULM didn't directly earn its way into the Sun Belt Tournament by taking two of three against Louisiana-Lafayette in the regular season's final series. But the Warhawks did end a 25-game losing streak with one win over the rival Ragin' Cajuns and slipped in as the No. 10 seed. 
 
"To get there was huge," Federico said. "Then when we beat South Alabama in the play-in game, I was like, 'We just earned our way into it.' That was really, really fun. It was fun for the guys to experience it and we gave it a valiant effort in the tournament. We played really well on Wednesday and Thursday and had two outstanding performances on the mound. 

"Man, Chad Bell was extremely hot the last three, four weeks of the season. The offense did a great job of extending leads and doing what we needed to win games."

Setting the tone with an All-Sun Belt Conference year at third base, Bell established a ULM single-season record with 21 home runs and hit safely in 23 of the final 24 games of his career. 

He hit 7-for-21 (.333) in five games in the Sun Belt Tournament, including a double and three home runs. Bell drove in 11 runs while scoring six times on his way to All-Tournament honors.  
 
Beyond their senior slugger, the Warhawks enjoyed impact offensive seasons from newcomers Andrew Beesley, Trent Tingelstad and Ryan Humeniuk. 

"Beesley, Tingelstad and Humeniuk were definitely high points of the season," Federico said. "I think Chad Bell would tell you the same thing. A big reason he got pitched to was because of those guys. Those three guys, along with Bell were fun from an offensive standpoint. "

Tingelstad led ULM with his .353 batting average, hit seven home runs and was among the Sun Belt leaders with 19 doubles, four triples and 43 walks. 

"Tingelstad is another guy with the potential to be an all-conference player," Federico said. "He had a ton of extra base hits and led us in batting average." 

Beesley finished third on the Warhawks in batting average at .329 and had 37 RBIs with 14 stolen bases

"Beesley with all the two-out hits and RBIs he had, just wow," Federico said. "He was outstanding."

Humeniuk led ULM with 17 stolen bases and 53 runs scored, and reached base in 22-straight games during one stretch. He batted .253 with seven home runs and 33 RBIs. 

"Ryan Humeniuk scored over 50 runs, which is saying something," Federico said. "He hit a lot of balls hard and had a lot of productive at-bats."

Federico was also mindful of contributing role players like Blake Buckman, who stepped in when first baseman/DH Cam Horton was injured.

"He helped us beat Louisiana Tech," Federico said. "Look back and the reason we beat Louisiana Tech was Blake Buckman. We beat Troy because of Blake Buckman. He really accepted his role."

Federico noted the improved play of outfielder Braedon Barrett down the stretch, as well as shortstop Joey Jordan's return from injury to solidify the middle infield as other key developments as the season went on. 

"I feel like a lot of guys stepped up and accomplished some positive things," Federico said.   

Senior Trey Jeans was the top weekend starter on the staff and finished his career by pitching a gem in the Sun Belt Tournament. He tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings against top-seed and regular-season champion Texas State, giving up just three hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Jeans finished his senior season at 5-8 with a 3.76 ERA, giving up 37 walks with 69 strikeouts.

"Trey Jeans will probably get a chance to be drafted, and he had an outstanding year from an innings perspective," Federico said. "Maybe his win-loss record wasn't great, but what he did for us was huge in helping us win weekends.

"He was the only starter for us who started every weekend the entire year. He was our Saturday guy and moved to Friday. From start to finish, he didn't miss a start."

Federico said improving pitching overall is a major goal going forward.          

"The biggest thing, we've got to continue to get better on the mound," he said. "That's the name of the game.

"Our back end of the bullpen, we lost Brock Figueroa early in the year. Cole Gray had some health issues. We had to manufacture some things. I think we had five or six saves that were three-plus innings. You don't see that much in college baseball anymore. We had some guys step up like Kolton Childress and Trey Jeans and Ty Barnes, who gave us really good outings. Landon Longsworth and Miles Dunn were really productive. The Barton brothers (Justin and Jacob), which was really neat to have them playing together. There were times when they helped us win some baseball games.
 
"But we've got to get better on the mound, and we've got to get better defensively. Those are the deficiencies that we have to keep battling and getting better. That's part of the process of developing a program."

Weekend starters Ty Barnes and Kayleb Sanderson, along with midweek starter Cole Martin should all be back next season.

"Three of our four starters are back and Conner Deeds was a hybrid guy who bounced around back and forth," Federico said. "We've got to get better around them."   

ULM signed 13 players to restock the roster, with seven junior college and six high school recruits. Federico will have two new infielders competing to replace Bell and a pair of outfielders coming in to play center field where Barrett is departing.    

"We wanted to get some youth," Federico said. "We've got a couple young arms that I'm a really excited about and a couple of young infielders I'm excited about.

"The other guys were brought in to replace Bell and Barrett and the rest are all arms. That's where we've got to get better. I'm excited where we're at from that standpoint."

Federico was also encouraged by the support the program received as it rallied in the postseason. 

"I got a lot of text messages," Federico said. "I heard from a lot of former players, which was neat. We broke a lot of streaks this year, beating Louisiana Tech and breaking the streak against Lafayette. Getting into the tournament. There were things we accomplished this year that we could check off the box. There was a lot of excitement.
 
"Now, we've got to get this program to being a 30-win team year in and year out. It's a program that can do that. We can get our RPI better and get in the mix. Our league is good enough. We can continue as a league to keep getting better."
 
 
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